Skip to main content

Open Your Eyes By Going Abroad

I like to tell my students to save their money and go abroad, just for a short vacation. It's not that there is no place in Indonesia worth to go visiting, but there is a very good lesson abroad. For example, when I did my research for Bandung High Tech Valley, I went to Silicon Valley, Malaysia Super Corridor, India (but have not gone to Bangalore yet), and Singapore. I want to smell the coffee in these places.

First of all, you can see how other people live. True you can learn this from reading books, blogs, or watching television, but being there is different. There are so many things that cannot be captured by all of these. For example, for political reasons or (media) company's policy the writers cannot write bad things about the object they're talking about. When you go to these places, you can see things for yourself. You can see how clean/dirty the place is, how un/friendly people are, how things work in these countries, and other things.

Second, when you interact with the people of these countries, you will realize that we (Indonesians) are not way behind and Indonesia (as a place) is not bad at all - in fact, in some places maybe we are better. This will give you more power to believe in yourself. "Hey, if they can do it, we can also do it." ... And, we can! This experience will also make you appreciate what you have here in Indonesia. Well, this is why I live in Bandung - of all the places in the world.

Yes, going abroad is still expensive for students. I know. Students are the same, whether they are in Indonesia or in Ireland. But, if there's a will, there's a way. Trust me on this. Just don't give up.

A few months ahead, we are planning to take some people of our small team to go abroad. Maybe we'll go to Singapore and Malaysia first, just because they are so close to us. Wish us luck.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I can't agree more on this.
You're absolutely right, wish you and your students best of luck.
Anonymous said…
What really stuck in my mind when we went abroad, Mr GBT, is that how good we are when it's one on one comparation but how lame we are as a community.

Most of the hardworkers abroad are mainly come from Asia (some from Indonesia too) and they can be categorized as high-achiever.
Anonymous said…
sometimes when we go abroad, we may not just open our eyes, but also open their eyes about us!
Unknown said…
First time I went to small town in europe, I felt more secure than Jakarta or Bandung. I don't know, It's just inspired me much of how a country must run.
By going abroad, we challenge our self to think outside of one little world, and see where you really are in the grand scheme of things in this world.that's beautiful mind...

Popular posts from this blog

Himbauan Kepada Hacker & Cracker Indonesia & Malaysia

Kepada Hacker & Cracker Indonesia & Malaysia, Saya mengharapkan anda tidak melakukan penyerangan atau/dan pengrusakan situs-situs Indonesia dan Malaysia. Saya mengerti bahwa akhir-akhir ini beberapa masalah di dunia nyata membuat kita kesal dan marah. Namun kekesalan tersebut sebaiknya tidak dilimpahkan ke dunia maya (cyberspace). Semestinya sebelum melakukan aksi yang berdampak negatif, kita bisa melakukan langkah-langkah positif seperti melakukan dialog (melalui email, mailing list, bulletin board, blog, dan media elektronik lainnya). Kita harus ingat bahwa kita hidup bertetangga dan bersaudara. Yang namanya hidup bertetangga pasti mengalami perbedaan pendapat. Mari kita belajar bertetangga dengan baik. Saya berharap agar kita yang hidup di dunia maya mencontohkan bagaimana kita menyelesaikan permasalahan dengan kepala dingin dan hati yang lapang, sehingga para pemimpin kita di dunia nyata dapat mencontoh penyelesaian damai. Mudah-mudahan mereka dapat lebih arif dan bijaksana

More bad news with Malaysia - Indonesia

I've got more emails and news about bad news between Indonesia and Malaysia. To be exact, there was a news about RELA (not sure what that is) that goes out after Indonesians in Malaysia. There were incidents where they hit Indonesians, rob, and do horrible things. I cannot even write this is my blog. I am so sad and frustrated. What's going on with Malaysia (and Malaysians)? What did we - Indonesian(s) - do to deserve this? I thought there should be less boundary between Indonesia and Malaysia. But ... What's going on there, bro & sis? You know, more Indonesians now feel that they are offended by Malaysians. I can tell you that this bad feeling is increasing. This is a bad publicity towards Malaysia. People are now creating various calling names, such as "Malingsia" (it's a short of "maling" [thief] "siah" [you, Sundanese]), and worse.

Say NO to APJII!

Prolog At the end of 1997, I went back to Indonesia from my studies and work in Canada. The .ID domain management in Indonesia at that time was in a confusing state. Nobody wanted to manage it. Universitas Indonesia (UI) - the original maintainer - was in a fight with APJII (the Association of Indonesian ISP). In the end, IANA gave me a mandate to manage the .ID domain. Since then, I manage the .ID domain with open management. There are problems, but mostly minors. Until recently, when APJII (again) is trying to take over the .ID domain management from my team. Here's a short info to give you a head start. Short summary APJII (the association of ISP in Indonesia) is trying to takeover the .ID domain management in Indonesia. They have tried and will try everything to take over. Long description I've been managing the .ID domain since the end of 1997. At that time, nobody wanted to run the domain management. First of all, a brief description of how we run things. To run the .ID d